[MUSIC PLAYING]
It is difficult for mortal minds to comprehend the
majesty of the Creation.
It is much easier for us to think about good things to eat
or fun things to do.
But I would like to stretch our minds to think of things
beyond our easy grasp.
The creation of man and woman was wondrous and great.
So was the creation of the earth as their
mortal dwelling place.
Each phase of the Creation was well planned before it was
accomplished.
Scripture tells us that the Lord God created all things
spiritually before they were naturally upon
the face of the earth.
The physical Creation itself was staged through ordered
periods of time.
In Genesis and in Moses, those periods are called days, but
in the book of Abraham, each period is
referred to as a time.
Whether termed a day, a time, or an age, each phase was a
period between two identifiable events, a
division of eternity.
Period one included the creation of atmospheric
heavens and physical earth, culminating in the emergence
of light from darkness.
In period two, the waters were divided between the surface of
the earth and its atmospheric heavens.
Provision was made for clouds and rain to give life to all
that would later dwell upon the earth.
In period three, plant life began.
The earth was organized to bring forth grass, herbs,
trees, and vegetation, each growing from its own seed.
Period four was a time of further development.
Lights in the expense of heaven were organized so there
could be seasons and other means of measuring time.
During this period, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the
earth were placed in proper relationship to one another.
The sun with its vast stores of hydrogen was to serve as a
giant furnace to provide light and heat for the earth and
life upon it.
In period five, fish, fowl, and every living
creature were added.
They were made fruitful and able to multiply in the sea
and on the earth, each after its own kind.
In the sixth period, creation of life continued.
The beasts of the earth were made after their kind, cattle
after their kind, and everything which creepeth upon
the earth, again, after its own kind.
Then the gods counselled together and said, "Let us go
down and form man in our image, after our likeness." So
the gods went down to organize man in their own image, in the
image of the gods to form they him, male and female
to form they them.
Thus Adam and Eve were formed, and they were blessed to be
fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue
it and have dominion over the fish of the seas and over the
fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth
upon the earth.
The seventh period was designated as a time of rest.
I testify that the earth and all life upon it
are of divine origin.
The Creation did not happen by chance.
It did not come ex nihilo, out of nothing, and human minds
and hands, able to build buildings and create
computers, are not accidental.
It is God who made us and not we ourselves.
We are His people.
The Creation itself testifies of a Creator.
Grand as it is, planet earth is part of something even
grander, that great plan of God.
Simply summarized, the earth was created that
families might be.